Thursday, January 17, 2013

Hosea


The prophet Hosea is a big help in seeing married love as a great symbol of God's intimate union with us.  God tells Hosea to marry a woman who will be as unfaithful to him as Israel is to God. Despite the many times that she betrays her husband, Hosea takes her back.  The people make fun of him for being such a fool.  But God says to him, "Go and love her yet again."  That's how foolish God is in loving us.
In the 2nd chapter God speaks to our heart, "I will espouse you to myself forever, espouse you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love; I will espouse you to myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know me."  God is speaking to the whole people, not just to us as individuals.
In chapter 11, after expressing his anger toward us, God relents, "How could I part with you, my people?  How could I give you up?  My heart within me is overwhelmed.  I will not give in to my anger, for I am God not a human being.  I am the Holy One in your midst and have no wish to destroy."
Near the end of the book in a rapturous burst of poetry God says, "I shall love them with all my heart.  I shall fall like dew on my people.  They will bloom like the lily and put out roots like the cedar of Lebanon.  They will spread new branches.  They will be as beautiful as the olive tree, as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon.  They will come back to live in my shade.  They will grow wheat again and make the vine flourish."
God's intimate marriage union with us will be fruitful.

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